Have you ever noticed on some people post tweets that start with a period on twitter before someone’s username – yet it looks like they are talking to one another?
It would look like this:
.@timeontaskva Thanks for sharing my #Blogging tip!
So why is the period there? Why not the simple standard @username and then the Tweet?
When you Tweet directly to someone on Twitter (by putting their @username at the start of your Tweet), that Tweet only comes up in the feeds of users who follow both you AND the person you are sending the Tweet to.
Why is this? Mostly so that we don’t fill the timeline of all users with a conversation really intended for the two people in the conversation.
This is the reason people place the period before the username is so that it DOES get in the main timeline. There are situations where we want this to happen.
When do you do this?
Maybe I want to thank someone for retweeting a social media tip I posted, or for retweeting one of my tweets. I tend to reply or mention these people with purpose and include the hashtag … so others CAN see the info and see what we are talking about. It is another way that people can reach others and permit others to
see the topics we are talking about – it opens the door to find potential connections that may be of benefit to you.
Yes, you should have a ‘friending policy’ to know what kind of people you are trying to reach online; it guides you in your ‘Tribe Building’, knowing who you should be reaching out to online.
Sooo … if you want to keep your twitter conversations out of the mainstream and a little more private, don’t put that period at the beginning. If you do add it in.
TIP: You can accomplish the same thing by using the other person’s username elsewhere in the tweet, it does not have to be a period… it is just easier for most. This only occurs when the person’s username is at the very beginning of the tweet.
So even a tweet that says – Hey @username thanks for sharing my #blogging tip – would put this tweet in the mainstream the same as using the .@username at the beginning.
Clear as mud?? If you are still unsure, post me a note on Facebook or Twitter and I will try to help you understand it better.
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